The H-Bomb Secret

On March 9, 1979, the U.S. District Court of Western Wisconsin issued a restraining order enjoining The Progressive from publishing an article by Howard Morland titled, “The H-Bomb Secret: How We Got It, Why We're Telling It.”

A long court battled ensued that threatened the constitutional protections against “prior restraint in publication.” In its case, The Progressive argued, “While acknowledging that freedom of the press is not absolute, we maintain that the publication of the projected article does not rise to the level of immediate, direct, and irreparable harm which could justify incursion into First Amendment freedoms.” Eventually, the government dropped the case, and the article was published as the cover story in the November 1979 issue.

We at The Progressive remember this case as an important battle for free speech and freedom of the press.